This is The Denver Post’s Sound Off newsletter. Every Monday, we deliver to your inbox a roundup of what we’ve been publishing on the opinion pages over the past week, including both print and online. That includes Denver Post editorials, op-ed columns by Post columnists like Megan Schrader and Greg Dobbs as well as nationally syndicated columnists like Garrison Keillor and Catherine Rampell, plus guest commentaries, letters to the editor and editorial cartoons.

Perspective

First, a summary of what was in our Sunday Perspective section this week:

Total solar eclipse: Jay Pasachoff, a professor of astronomy at Williams College, wrote: Assuming you’re not an astronomer, why should you make the pilgrimage to see the total solar eclipse? It is simply the most spectacular thing you can ever see.

Reefer madness rolls on: Ricardo Baca, former editor of The Denver Post’s Cannabist website, wrote that the federal government’s misinformation campaign on marijuana is still alive and well, and it’s time Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Attorney General Cynthia Coffman call out this misinformation.

When haters come to campus: Editorial page editor Chuck Plunkett wrote that after Charlottesville, it’s a safe bet that when students return to university campuses this year, life will be extra challenging.

Stick to facts on Medicaid: In its Sunday editorial, The Post’s editorial board wrote: Fixing Colorado’s Medicaid problem will be complex and involve analyzing mass amounts of data. We hope the candidates for governor are up to the challenge.

Letters to the editor: On the letters page, Denver Post readers tackled several issues. Here are several of their letters:

Thank you, Taylor Swift: Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer thanked singer Taylor Swift for fighting back in court against a Denver-area DJ who had groped her. Kafer related her own story of an unwelcome proposition from a prominent syndicated columnist and cable news commentator, saying she never reported the harassment because she believed nothing good could come of it.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post file

A sign supporting singer Taylor Swift during her trial against a DJ she had accused of groping her appears in an office window across from the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse in Denver on Aug. 10.

Moving on after Charlottesville: Patty Limerick, Colorado’s state historian and chair of the Center of the American West at CU, used the classic saloon barfight as an analogy to address the mess in Charlottesville and the need to find a moral compass and clean up that mess.

Middle East meets West: Natalie Dawson, director of the Wilderness Institute at the University of Montana in Missoula, reported on the lessons she learned when she recently shepherded several Iraqi students around the public lands and small communities of western Montana.

Not corruption, but … Former Denver Post editorial page editor Vincent Carroll reported on a bending of the bidding rules in Boulder County with the possible awarding of a valuable contract for a center of research and innovation to a favored entity — the Rodale Institute of Pennsylvania — even though Rodale turned in a slipshod proposal that county staff panned.

One transsexual Doctor too many: Jon Caldara argued that like so much lately, the left is pushing transsexual acceptance so hard it’s backfiring, using the example of the new “Dr. Who” coming back as a woman.

Jim Morin, The Miami Herald

What can the GOP do? Megan McArdle wrote that Donald Trump disgusts Republicans, but what, really, can they do about it? They could try impeaching him, but what would they put in the articles of impeachment?

Progress on infrastructure: Bloomberg View’s Cass R. Sunstein wrote that the White House managed to take a significant positive step last week: issuing an executive order designed to lower regulatory barriers to infrastructure projects.

Pulling back from the brink: Syndicated columnist Doyle McManus explained that Rex Tillerson, James N. Mattis and Gen. Joseph Dunford deserve credit for building a ladder to help President Trump down from the limb he climbed on with his North Korea threats.

Drawn to the News: For those of you who can’t get enough editorial cartoons, here are the two we featured on the back page of Sunday’s Perspective section, on the topic of Charlottesville and Confederate statues:

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald

The past week

Here are highlights from last week’s opinion coverage:

Denver Post editorials:

Cleaning up Gold King: We hope EPA chief Scott Pruitt and President Donald Trump remain committed to cleaning up Superfund sites like that around the Gold King Mine, as well as making good when the EPA screws up.

Excessive jail OT: Despite hiring 200 deputies, the Denver Sheriff Department spent $14 million on overtime in 2016, and is on track to spend nearly as much in 2017. This practice strikes us as unsound.

RJ Matson, Cagle Cartoons

Doubling down on hate: During his press conference at Trump Tower, Donald Trump reached a new low in his ongoing effort to use the office of the presidency to cast a dark, hateful stain across the land.

A pair of inspiring wins: On Monday in Denver, two human beings dug deep and prevailed with courage and grace that should inspire us all. Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis threw seven scoreless innings in his comeback from testicular cancer, and Taylor Swift won her court case against a DJ who had groped her before a concert.

Trump’s true colors: With his initial response to the violence in Charlottesville, President Donald Trump betrayed America and revealed his true colors.

Op-ed columns:

An embarrassing display: Denver Post columnist Megan Schrader wrote that the left should be embarrassed by their behavior at Sen. Cory Gardner’s town hall meetings last week. Gardner was was met with hostility, rudeness and aggression and was unable to speak over a crowd that yelled things like “single payer” and “you suck.”

James Wooldridge, The Gazette via AP

Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., speaks at a town hall at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs.

If Gene Amole wrote about Charlottesville: Tustin Amole, daughter of the late Rocky Mountain News columnist Gene Amole, wrote: If my father were alive now, I know I would see that same anger, horror and fear in his eyes that I did the day he told me about what he saw at Buchenwald.

RIP, “both sides” journalism: Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote that last week should put the nail in the coffin of “both sides” journalism.

Nate Beeler, The Columbus Dispatch

Cory Gardner has a choice: Jennifer Rubin wrote that Sen. Cory Gardner is the quintessential decent man who refused to interpose himself between an abhorrent leader and his country. He has sacrificed his integrity and betrayed the confidence voters place in him. So now he has a choice: Trump or the voters?

Lunacy in Charlottesville: Garrison Keillor wrote: The group that converged on Charlottesville is a gang of freaks that social media gives the power to unite. In a nation of 323 million, you can Google the secret words and get 700 sociopaths to gather in one place.

Trump’s despicable words: Alexandra Petri, a blogger for The Washington Post, wrote: President Trump is always, terminally, at a loss for words, but it would be hard to think of worse words at a more vital time than his speeches in the aftermath of the racist, terrorist violence in Charlottesville.

Macron’s stalled revolution: French President Emmanuel Macron’s revolution is over before it started, wrote Robert Zaretsky, a professor of history at the University of Houston’s Honors College.

Holding down college costs: Jimmy Sengenberger, president and CEO of the Millennial Policy Center in Denver, argued that Colorado should take its college opportunity fund one step further and lead the nation in adopting an entirely stipend-based funding system, thereby eliminating all direct subsidies.

Cohen Peart selects and edits The Denver Post’s letters to the editor and columns. He also compiles editorial cartoons for The Post’s online cartoon section, produces print and online opinion pages, and handles social media for the opinion section.